DTP directed to conduct structural audit of five societies

Gurugram:

Engineers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee will conduct a structural safety audit at five condominiums in the city, said officials on Thursday, adding that the move comes after residents filed repeated complaints regarding weakening structures, and the district town planner (DTP), enforcement, visited the buildings and submitted his report.

Officials said the decision was taken during a meeting between Union minister of state and Gurugram member of Parliament Rao Inderjit Singh and department of town and country planning (DTCP) officials on Wednesday, following which the director-general town and country planning (DGDTCP) issued directions to the DTP regarding the structural audit of the five societies.

The societies that will be audited are Raheja Atharwa in Sector 109, Raheja Vedanta in Sector 108, Brisk Lumbini in Sector 109, M3M Woodshire in Sector 107, and Mahindra Aura in Sector 110 A. The date for the audit is likely to be finalised by next week, officials said.

“Keeping in view the seriousness of the matter and threat to the lives of the residents, it has been decided to get IIT Roorkee to audit the structural stability and quality of construction, which includes the use of material in required ratio, and the quality of steel and other material used in the towers of the colonies on an urgent basis on the same pattern as IIT Delhi’s audit of Chintels Paradiso,” stated the order issued by SK Sehrawat, district town planner (headquarters).

RS Bhath, DTP, enforcement, said the discussion on Wednesday revolved around the aftermath of the incident at Chintels Paradiso wherein multiple ceilings in a building collapsed, killing two people, on February 10. Since then, the DTCP has received complaints from at least 60 societies, but is beginning with the structural audit of complexes from where the most number of complaints has been received.

“The DGTCP has approved the structural audit for the first five residential societies by IIT Roorkee. Field officers will compile structural audit reports for 60 colonies over 30 to 45 days. We assure the residents of Gurugram that we are working to create a safe environment for them,” Bhath said.

The DGTCP’s order also said that the structural audit will be held at the cost of the developer.

Gaurav Prakash, a resident of Brisk Lumbini, said the residents hoped the payment did not become an issue. “We hope the payment for audit does not become a bottleneck in the audit process. We fear for our lives and we want to know at the earliest what is the condition of our buildings and percentage of risk involved,” he said.

Meanwhile, M3M India said they were cooperating with the authorities and had decided to get an independent audit conducted as well.

“Keeping in view the structural audit requirement by the residents of Woodshire, the company has engaged an independent NABL-accredited French company which specialises in structural audit, health monitoring and testing, inspection and certification. They will conduct various tests on basement structure, highlighting areas requiring repair and also propose methodologies for repair, which will be duly certified by structural design experts. Based on the report, M3M India will take necessary steps for the satisfaction of our residents,” said an M3M India spokesperson.

Raheja Developers, on the other hand, insisted their buildings were safe.

“The construction work on our all projects was awarded on a turnkey basis to reputed builders and structural consultants from IIT Delhi. The builders have used the best quality materials on the site. All reports submitted by the builders and structural consultants ensure that the work was done with the best quality of material and specified IS codes by the authorities/government,” Dimple Bhardwaj, head of marketing and communication at Raheja Developers Limited said.

The spokesperson for Mahindra Aura said they were yet to receive any intimation regarding the audit.